Bulk E-way Bill

A step-by-step guide to understand how to generate bulk e-way bills, and also how to use the tools on the e-way bill portal to generate the JSON file, which can then be uploaded for easier bulk generation.

Update:As per a tweet from the official Twitter handle of the GST Council on the evening of 1st Feb, 2018, it has been decided to extend the trial phase for generation of e-way bill, both for inter and intra-State movement of goods, in view of the difficulties faced by businesses in generating the e-way bill due to technical glitches. It shall be made compulsory from a date to be announced.

When the trial implementation of e-way bill was started, the portal had seen over 2 lakh e-way bills being generated on a daily basis. The huge number of e-way bills is not surprising, as a business does have to generate a large number of e-way bills in a given period. There will be many situations, where a business is required to generate e-way bills in bulk, rather than one by one, which is a time consuming process.

Given below is a step-by-step process, which one can use for bulk generation of EWB on the e-way bill portal and as a result save time and ramp up the speed of doing business.

How to generate bulk E-way Bills on the E-way Bill Portal

2. Enter the User Name and Password, then the Captcha Code, and then click "Login"

3. On successful authentication of the credentials, the main menu of the e-way bill portal will open up

4.On the left hand side of the main menu of the e-way bill portal, click the option "E-way Bill"

5. Click the sub-option "Generate Bulk"

6. On doing so, one will see a screen, which allows one to upload the concerned JSON file

7. Click "Choose File" to browse for the JSON file containing the details to be included in the e-way bills, and then click "Upload & Generate"

8. On doing so, the portal will process the request. If there is an error, it will show up on the "Error Description" field. If all is in order, one will be able to generate the bulk e-way bill

However, to comply with this process, one needs to get a JSON file. Thus, it is important to understand, what exactly it is, and how to generate it. Given in the next section, is a step-by-step guide to generate JSON file for bulk e-way bill generation.

Obtaining JSON file for bulk E-way Bill generation

As already explained above, the bulk e-way bill generation is an effective method of saving a lot of time. The process as such, requires a business to upload one file, in the JSON format, containing multiple requests for e-way bill, at one shot on the e-way bill portal. The system will then generate e-way bills, for each request which has been provided, one-by-one and show the result in a table. One can then extract the details from the table into one’s own system for further reference and action.

The JSON file which needs to be uploaded, can be created in 2 ways:

Using E-way Bill JSON Format File

Using E-way Bill JSON Preparation Tool

Both the E-way Bill JSON Format File and the E-way Bill JSON Preparation Tool, are available for download from the e-way bill portal, as shown below:

5.Once that is done, one will see a page, which includes a host of bulk generation of EWB attributes & tools

Using E-way Bill JSON format file

For someone who is comfortable with working on JSON files, this option for bulk EWB upload is recommended.

1.In the Bulk Generation Tools page, click "E-waybill JSON Format"

2.Once one does this, a webpage will open up. One needs to right-click, choose "Save As", and save the file on the system. The file will get downloaded on the system as a JSON file

3.In the page shown above, click "E-waybill Attributes". An excel sheet will be downloaded, which will include the e-way bill JSON format, parameters, master codes and error codes, which will help one to fill the JSON file with the right details of the request

4.While a single JSON file with multiple requests are allowed, it is recommended that one prepares the JSON file with around 500 requests to avoid uploading challenges

5.Finally, validate all the parameters of the request, as per the format, codes and interlinked values before preparing the final JSON file, which can then be uploaded as discussed above

Using E-way Bill converter tool

For someone who is more comfortable working with excel sheets, this option for e-way bill bulk upload is recommended. This option of bulk EWB converter tool, has been provided on the e-way bill portal, primarily due to the demand of tax payers wanting an alternative mechanism.

2.Once one does this, an excel sheet will be downloaded, which will include a welcome note, an e-way bill format, master codes, a sample e-way bill and FAQs

3.In the 2nd sheet named "e-way bill", one can fill in the details of the request, and then click "Validate". Once the validation is done, one can then click “Prepare JSON”, and obtain the JSON file, which can then be uploaded as discussed above

Needless to say, the second option i.e. EWB bulk converter gives one a greater ease of verifying what has been keyed in, and thus one may prefer using the JSON Preparation Tool, for bulk e-way bill generation, compared to working on the JSON Format File. Having said that, either methods are fairly effective enough to allow generation of bulk e-way bills in quick time.

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